CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Review of Tool, 10,000 Days

Friday, June 30, 2006

this entry brought to you by sufjan stevens, "come on! feel the illinoise!..."





Days after Tool's 2001 masterpiece, Lateralus came out, a friend of mine and I were discussing its merits, and a coworker came along, asking who we were talking about. When we told him it was Tool he said he wasn't familiar with their music and asked what they sounded like. Oddly, describing their music was more difficult than I had anticipated. They're hard rock, but nothing like Korn or Metallica. Their songs frequently stretch past the 10 minute mark and feature weird time signatures and chord shifts, but lead singer Maynard James Keenan's lyrics, which switch between deeply personal to venom-spitting sarcasm from song-to-song aren't pretentious like prog-rock. Their videos are nightmarish and disturbing, but unlike other horror-themed videos are symbolic of sensitive subjects like child abuse and relationships. In short, Tool is an enigma, at first glance similar to lots of other bands, but in practice, they're incomparable; if a species of animal, scientists would be forced to put them in their own class.

I mention this because as a Tool album, 10,000 Days is something of an enigma. On one hand, despite five years separating it from Lateralus, it doesn't feel like much of a progression from its predecessor. Chord progression remains similar and guitar textures remain unaltered from previous albums. Although the album goes in different directions, nothing here sounds like it wasn't recorded during the Lateralus sessions-- a lot like how Radiohead's Amnesiac feels to Kid A. Although guitarist Adam Jones introduces a talk box in the solo for "Jambi", he also directly lifts certain whines and squeals from other records. 10,000 Days is also uneven. Since AEnima in 1996, their releases have had segues to pace them; one or two minute sound sketches that help with creating atmosphere and give you a breather after particularly riveting songs. Here, though, they are placed awkwardly. "Wings for Marie (Part 1)" and "10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)" are two separate movements of one epic song, a beautiful, wistful mourning of Keenan's deceased mother that stretches to a combined 17 minutes. "The Pot", a scathing, Bush-bating crowd-pleaser that is equal parts groove and mosh, finds Keenan crooning in falsetto that the only explanation to the President’s behavior is that he must have been high, follows that. After this however comes "Lipan Conjuring", something that sounds perhaps like Native Americans chanting a ghost into a peaceful afterlife, making the listener wonder if it would have fit better after "10,000 Days". But "Lipan Conjuring" is itself followed by another segue, "Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman)", a pointless four minutes of noise and a sound bite of a nurse and a doctor discussing a patient. The record is also ended quite awkwardly with "Viginti Trees", a sound doodle that sounds like it ought to be between songs but serves as an outro. The real misstep, however, is "Rosetta Stoned", a chugging, 11-minute ramble about alien abductions that may or may not have been brought on by a drug trip. It's got distorted vocals so you can't understand anything Keenan is saying, and when you do pay hard enough attention to understand, it comes off as a joke song, but at 11 minutes it far overstays its welcome; it's the first time in Tool's catalogue of sprawling songs I've ever impatiently checked my watch.

This is not to imply that Tool has gotten lazy in their middle age or that they've somehow lost their touch. Indeed, all Tool records are supposed to be a challenge to mainstream rock; 10,000 Days feels, however, like more than that, like a very purposeful effort to challenge Tool fans. Nevertheless, the album has immediate winners-- the aforementioned "The Pot"; their lead single "Vicarious", which is the penultimate Tool song, immediately familiar yet with an undeniable urgency; "Jambi", the only song here that really explores new sounds, a pulsing, furious song that finds Keenan sweetly singing he'd wish it all away if he thought he'd lose his love. Then there are the more subtle songs that take two or three listens to become favorites-- "Wings for Marie" and the title track, mentioned before; "Right in Two", a song about one of Keenan's favorite subjects, religion, but this time taken from an angel's perspective watching man destroy itself for God.

10,000 Days has plenty of instant-classic songs, but is ultimately a frustrating, uneven album-- it is also obviously intended to be. What makes this difficult to get over, however, is how long it will be before another Tool release. When a band like The White Stripes releases an uneven album like Get Behind Me Satan, it's acceptable-- in the time between Lateralus and 10,000 Days, the Stripes have released four records, so the likelihood of them releasing a more solid effort within two years of it are very high. With Tool on the other hand, given their track record, we won't hear another album until 2011, and until then, we'll have a not-quite-satisfying album to tide us over. Fortunately, when Tool releases a "not-quite-satisfying" album, it's still in an entire league of its own, miles better than most everything else in the modern music soundscape, even if it's not as good as their two previous records.
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two days ago, last year president bushwhacker fills your head up terrifying yet vagues images to keep you complacent, then makes you feel good with hopeful yet generic pro-america sentimentality during last year's state of the union address. this entry is an exaggeration in order to make it funny, but it's not much of an exaggeration.

yesterday, last year do you remember jay kay? neither do i, really.

on this day last year there's the game i like to play where i ask you who your rock supergroup would be. want to play?
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with love from CRS @ 12:50 PM 

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